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Behavioral Sciences (Basel, Switzerland) Jun 2024Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include a range of abusive, neglectful, and dysfunctional household behaviors that are strongly associated with long-term health...
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include a range of abusive, neglectful, and dysfunctional household behaviors that are strongly associated with long-term health problems, mental health conditions, and societal difficulties. The study aims to uncover significant factors influencing ACEs in children aged 0-17 years and to propose a predictive model that can be used to forecast the likelihood of ACEs in children. Machine learning models are applied to identify and analyze the relationships between several predictors and the occurrence of ACEs. Key performance metrics such as AUC, F1 score, recall, and precision are used to evaluate the predictive strength of different factors on ACEs. Family structures, especially non-traditional forms such as single parenting, and the frequency of relocating to a new address are determined as key predictors of ACEs. The final model, a neural network, achieved an AUC of 0.788, a precision score of 0.683, and a recall of 0.707, indicating its effectiveness in accurately identifying ACE cases. The model's ROC and PR curves showed a high true positive rate for detecting children with two or more ACEs while also pointing to difficulties in classifying single ACE instances accurately. Furthermore, our analysis revealed the intricate relationship between the frequency of relocation and other predictive factors. The findings highlight the importance of familial and residential stability in children's lives, with substantial implications for child welfare policies and interventions. The study emphasizes the need for targeted educational and healthcare support to promote the well-being and resilience of at-risk children.
PubMed: 38920819
DOI: 10.3390/bs14060487 -
Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) Jun 2024The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown countermeasure may have significantly affected adolescents' physical and mental health. This study aims to assess...
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown countermeasure may have significantly affected adolescents' physical and mental health. This study aims to assess adolescents' recollections of this period, also analyzing their current weight status along with factors they traced back to the epidemic phase and their current sports practice. A survey among 233 Italian adolescents aged 12.4 ± 0.9 years was conducted in October 2023. To achieve the research objectives, a new questionnaire was developed: the COVID-19 AdolesceNt/chilDren Lockdown Experience questionnaire (CANDLE). The new questionnaire was employed to gather data on the adolescents' recollections of the lockdown situation they experienced. The stature and weight of participants were measured directly. The results indicated that middle schoolers remember both positive and negative experiences of the lockdown: the change perceived as the most positive was spending more time with family, while social detachment from peers represents the most negative aspect. According to multivariate regression analysis, certain behaviors they assumed during the lockdown, such as comfort food consumption in boys and sleeping disturbances in girls, in addition to their current sports practice, affected their actual Body Mass Index. This study supports the evidence that changes caused by the COVID-19 lockdown affected adolescents' physical and mental health, albeit with sex differences.
PubMed: 38920548
DOI: 10.3390/diseases12060116 -
Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) Jun 2024Dementia is a significant health issue worldwide. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can transform into dementia over time. General practitioners (GPs) may be the first to...
Exploration of the Hungarian Version of Test Your Memory in General Practice: A Cross-Sectional Correlational Study of a Convenience Sample of Middle-Aged and Older Adults.
BACKGROUND
Dementia is a significant health issue worldwide. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can transform into dementia over time. General practitioners (GPs) may be the first to notice the cognitive deficit; therefore, it is crucial for them to have access to a screening test that can be administered quickly and efficiently. We explored the Hungarian version of the Test Your Memory self-administered dementia screening test in general practice for the early detection of dementia and cognitive impairment.
METHODS
In the four Hungarian cities with medical universities, 368 patients over the age of 50 attending GPs filled out the questionnaire within the framework of our cross-sectional study.
RESULTS
The total scores of the test showed a significant correlation with education and type of occupation and a significant negative correlation with age. The results of this research showed that the clock drawing and recall subtest scores deteriorate at the earliest age.
CONCLUSION
The test can be filled out in a GP's office easily and two of its subtests can raise the possibility that patients may need further assessment, especially if they have symptoms, at an earlier age than the other subtests.
PubMed: 38920430
DOI: 10.3390/geriatrics9030074 -
Biometrics Mar 2024Observational studies are frequently used to estimate the effect of an exposure or treatment on an outcome. To obtain an unbiased estimate of the treatment effect, it is...
Observational studies are frequently used to estimate the effect of an exposure or treatment on an outcome. To obtain an unbiased estimate of the treatment effect, it is crucial to measure the exposure accurately. A common type of exposure misclassification is recall bias, which occurs in retrospective cohort studies when study subjects may inaccurately recall their past exposure. Particularly challenging is differential recall bias in the context of self-reported binary exposures, where the bias may be directional rather than random and its extent varies according to the outcomes experienced. This paper makes several contributions: (1) it establishes bounds for the average treatment effect even when a validation study is not available; (2) it proposes multiple estimation methods across various strategies predicated on different assumptions; and (3) it suggests a sensitivity analysis technique to assess the robustness of the causal conclusion, incorporating insights from prior research. The effectiveness of these methods is demonstrated through simulation studies that explore various model misspecification scenarios. These approaches are then applied to investigate the effect of childhood physical abuse on mental health in adulthood.
Topics: Humans; Bias; Observational Studies as Topic; Mental Recall; Computer Simulation; Treatment Outcome; Child; Models, Statistical; Adult; Biometry
PubMed: 38919141
DOI: 10.1093/biomtc/ujae058 -
Nutrition Journal Jun 2024Healthy eating habits at a young age are crucial to support growth and development and good general health. In this context, monitoring youth dietary intakes adequately...
BACKGROUND
Healthy eating habits at a young age are crucial to support growth and development and good general health. In this context, monitoring youth dietary intakes adequately with valid tools is important to develop efficient interventions and identify groups that are more at risk of inadequate intakes. This study aimed to assess the relative validity of the self-administered web-based 24-h dietary recall (R24W) for evaluating energy and nutrient intakes among active adolescents.
METHODS
Participants were invited to complete one interviewer-administered 24-h dietary dietary recall and the R24W on up to three occasions within one month. A total of 272 French-speaking active adolescents aged 12 to 17 years from the province of Québec were invited to complete three R24W and one interview-administered 24-h recall. Student's t-test and correlations were conducted on sex-adjusted data. Percent differences, cross-classification (percentage of agreement), weighted Kappa and Bland-Altman plots were calculated.
RESULTS
Mean (SD) energy intake from the R24W was 8.8% higher than from the interview-administered 24-h dietary recall (2558 kcal ± 1128 vs. 2444 kcal ± 998, p < 0.05). Significant differences in mean nutrient intake between the R24W and the interview-administered 24-h dietary recall ranged from 6.5% for % E from fat (p < 0.05) to 25.2% for saturated fat (p < 0.001), i.e., higher values with R24W. Sex-adjusted correlations were significant for all nutrients except for % E from proteins and thiamin (range: 0.24 to 0.52, p < 0.01). Cross-classification demonstrated that 36.6% of the participants were classified in the same fourth with both methods, 39.6% in the adjacent fourth, and 5.7% misclassified. Bland-Atman plots revealed proportional bias between the two methods for 7/25 nutrients. Completing at least two recalls with the R24W increased the precision of intake estimates.
CONCLUSION
These data suggest that the R24W presents an acceptable relative validity compared to a standard interview-administered 24-h recall for estimating energy and most nutrients in a cohort of French-speaking adolescents from the province of Québec.
Topics: Humans; Adolescent; Female; Male; Mental Recall; Quebec; Child; Internet; Reproducibility of Results; Energy Intake; Diet; Diet Surveys; Nutrition Assessment; Feeding Behavior; Diet Records
PubMed: 38907225
DOI: 10.1186/s12937-024-00954-0 -
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 2024Sleep-related disorders have been associated with cognitive decline and neurodegeneration. American Indians are at increased risk for dementia. Here, we aim to...
BACKGROUND
Sleep-related disorders have been associated with cognitive decline and neurodegeneration. American Indians are at increased risk for dementia. Here, we aim to characterize, for the first time, the associations between sleep characteristics and subsequent cognitive performance in a sample of aging American Indians.
METHODS
We performed analyses on data collected in two ancillary studies from the Strong Heart Study, which occurred approximately 10 years apart with an overlapping sample of 160 American Indians (mean age at follow-up 73.1, standard deviation 5.6; 69.3% female and 80% with high school completion). Sleep measures were derived by polysomnography and self-reported questionnaires, including sleep timing and duration, sleep latency, sleep stages, indices of sleep-disordered breathing, and self-report assessments of poor sleep and daytime sleepiness. Cognitive assessment included measures of general cognition, processing speed, episodic verbal learning, short and long-delay recall, recognition, and phonemic fluency. We performed correlation analyses between sleep and cognitive measures. For correlated variables, we conducted separate linear regressions. We analyzed the degree to which cognitive impairment, defined as more than 1.5 standard deviations below the average Modified Mini Mental State Test score, is predicted by sleep characteristics. All regression analyses were adjusted for age, sex, years of education, body mass index, study site, depressive symptoms score, difference in age from baseline to follow-up, alcohol use, and presence of allele.
RESULTS
We found that objective sleep characteristics measured by polysomnography, but not subjective sleep characteristics, were associated with cognitive performance approximately 10 years later. Longer sleep latency was associated with worse phonemic fluency ( = -0.069, = 0.019) and increased likelihood of being classified in the cognitive impairment group later in life (odds ratio 1.037, = 0.004). Longer duration with oxygen saturation < 90% was associated with better immediate verbal memory, and higher oxygen saturation with worse total learning, short and long-delay recall, and processing speed.
CONCLUSION
In a sample of American Indians, sleep characteristics in midlife were correlated with cognitive performance a decade later. Sleep disorders may be modifiable risk factors for cognitive impairment and dementia later in life, and suitable candidates for interventions aimed at preventing neurodegenerative disease development and progression.
PubMed: 38903901
DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1346807 -
Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency... Jun 2024We examined relationships between neurocognition and immune activation in Ugandan adolescents with perinatally acquired HIV (PHIV). Eighty-nine adolescents in Kampala,...
We examined relationships between neurocognition and immune activation in Ugandan adolescents with perinatally acquired HIV (PHIV). Eighty-nine adolescents in Kampala, Uganda (32 virally suppressed [<400 copies/mL] PHIV and 57 socio-demographically matched HIV- controls) completed a tablet-based neurocognitive test battery. Control derived z-scores for 12 individual tests and a global/overall z-score were calculated. We measured plasma (soluble CD14 and CD163), monocyte (proportions of monocyte subsets), and T cell (expression of CD38 and HLA-DR on CD4+ and CD8+) activation and gut markers. Spearman's rank correlations and median regressions examined associations between test performance and immune activation. Median [IQR] age was 15[13-16] years, 40% were females. Median time on ART was 10 years [7-11] for PHIV; 87% had viral load <50 copies/mL. Compared to controls, global z-scores were lower among PHIV (p=0.05), and significantly worse on tests of executive functioning and delayed recall (p's≤0.05). Overall, monocyte activation significantly correlated with worse test performance on global z-score (r=0.21, p=0.04), attention, processing speed, and motor speed (r=0.2-0.3, p≤0.01). T cell activation was significantly correlated with worse performance on tests of learning, executive functioning, and working memory (r=0.2-0.4, p≤0.04). In PHIV, after adjusting for age, sex, and ART duration, activated CD4 T cells remained associated with worse memory (β-0.3, 95% CI, -0.55, -.07, p=0.01). PHIV with virologic suppression on ART show evidence of worse neurocognitive test performance compared to controls. Monocyte and T cell activation is correlated with worse neurocognition in Ugandan youth with and without HIV which has not been previously investigated in this setting.
PubMed: 38902861
DOI: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000003483 -
Psychology and Aging Jun 2024Older adults tend to describe experiences from their past with fewer episodic details, such as spatiotemporal and contextually specific information, but more nonepisodic...
Older adults tend to describe experiences from their past with fewer episodic details, such as spatiotemporal and contextually specific information, but more nonepisodic details, particularly personal semantic knowledge, than younger adults. While the reduction in episodic details is interpreted in the context of episodic memory decline typical of aging, interpreting the increased production of semantic details is not as straightforward. We modified the widely used Autobiographical Interview (AI) to create a Semantic Autobiographical Interview (SAI) that explicitly targets personal (P-SAI) and general semantic memories (G-SAI) with the aim of better understanding the production of semantic information in aging depending on instructional manipulation. Overall, older adults produced a lower proportion of target details than young adults. There was an intra-individual consistency in the production of target details in the AI and P-SAI, suggesting a trait level in the production of personal target details or consistency in the narrative style and communicative goals adopted across interviews. Older adults consistently produced autobiographical facts and self-knowledge across interviews, suggesting that they are biased toward the production of personal semantic information regardless of instructions. These results cannot be easily accommodated by accounts of aging and memory emphasizing reduced cognitive control or compensation for episodic memory impairment. Nevertheless, future work is needed to fully disentangle between these accounts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Humans; Memory, Episodic; Mental Recall; Female; Male; Aged; Semantics; Young Adult; Adult; Aging; Middle Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Adolescent
PubMed: 38900503
DOI: 10.1037/pag0000821 -
PsyCh Journal Jun 2024Augmented reality (AR) technology allows virtual objects to be superimposed on the real-world environment, offering significant potential for improving cognitive...
Augmented reality (AR) technology allows virtual objects to be superimposed on the real-world environment, offering significant potential for improving cognitive assessments and rehabilitation processes in the field of visuospatial learning. This study examines how patients with acquired brain injury (ABI) evaluate the functions and usability of a SLAM-based smartphone AR app to assess object-location skills. Ten ABI patients performed a task for the spatial recall of four objects using an AR app. The data collected from 10 healthy participants provided reference values for the best performance. Their perceptions of the AR app/technology and its usability were investigated. The results indicate lower effectiveness in solving the task in the patient group, as the time they needed to complete it was related to their level of impairment. The patients showed lower, yet positive, scores in factors related to app usability and acceptance (e.g., mental effort and satisfaction, respectively). There were more patients reported on entertainment as a positive aspect of the app. Patients' perceived enjoyment was related to concentration and calm, whereas usability was associated with perceived competence, expertise, and a lower level of physical effort. For patients, the sensory aspects of the objects were related to their presence, while for healthy participants, they were related to enjoyment and required effort. The results show that AR seems to be a promising tool to assess spatial orientation in the target patient population.
PubMed: 38894509
DOI: 10.1002/pchj.784 -
Nutrients May 2024This study aimed to validate a semiquantitative electronic food frequency questionnaire (eFFQ) in estimating the intake of a comprehensive list of nutrients and...
This study aimed to validate a semiquantitative electronic food frequency questionnaire (eFFQ) in estimating the intake of a comprehensive list of nutrients and bioactive compounds among adults from six regions of Argentina using multiple 24 h dietary recall (24HR) as a reference. A total of 163 adults completed two administrations of the eFFQ and four 24HRs. The paired -test/Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Spearman/Pearson correlations, cross-classification, weighted kappa statistics, and Bland-Altman plots were employed to determine relative validity. To determine reproducibility, intraclass correlations (ICC), cross-classification, and weighted kappa statistics were calculated. For relative validity, crude correlations ranged from 0.15 to 0.57; energy adjustment and de-attenuation slightly improved most of these correlations. In cross-classification analysis, agreements within one quintile adjacent to exact agreement (EA ± 1) ranged from 52.2% to ~74%; extreme misclassifications were < 7%. For reproducibility, the crude ICC ranged from 0.29 to 0.85, showing moderate to good correlations for most nutrients. Cross-classification analysis showed agreement levels for the EA ± 1 quintile of 70.6% to 87.7%. Weighted kappa values ranged from 0.21 to 0.62. The results show that this eFFQ is relatively valid in ranking adults according to their nutrient intake and has an acceptable reproducibility, yet it slightly overestimates the intake of most nutrients.
Topics: Humans; Argentina; Adult; Reproducibility of Results; Female; Male; Middle Aged; Diet Surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires; Diet; Young Adult; Diet Records; Energy Intake; Nutrition Assessment; Feeding Behavior; Mental Recall
PubMed: 38892498
DOI: 10.3390/nu16111564